SPRING 2018
“MY MOTHER WASN’T ALLOWED TO
ASK ANY QUESTIONS DURING THESE
CALLS, AND I WASN’T ALLOWED
TO SPEAK FREELY" ~ AMANDA
to the script they had written and try to convince
her family to pay the ransom.
After fifteen long months, the Lindhout and
Brennan families were able to raise enough ransom
money to satisfy their children’s captors –
$600,000, plus substantial expenses for negotiators
– and Amanda and Nigel were finally freed.
Following her release, Amanda was reunited with
her family in Kenya, where she was hospitalized
for a week before returning to Canada.
COPING WITH TRAUMA
In A House in the Sky, Amanda describes in rich
detail the techniques she used to survive during
her time in captivity. In fact, she used her main
survival mechanism as the title for her book. “I
would just try to escape in my mind to a sunny
place, usually Vancouver,” she says. “I’d imagine
running around in Stanley Park.” In another
scenario, she found herself inside a metaphorical
house in the sky with all the people she loved, safe,
protected and enjoying a holiday meal.
There were a number of other methods she used to
survive during this period – which is not to say that
she didn’t have dark thoughts of suicide at times
– and her coping methods, she says, evolved along
with the stages of her captivity. Early on, she
changed her religion in an attempt to better
connect with her captors. To the extent possible,
she also tried to get to know her kidnappers and
humanize them separate from the abusive terrorists
they were. Amanda recalls that, “One was on the
verge of getting married and others would speak
about their families.” Amanda tried her best to see
her captors with some compassion, as brainwashed
vigilantes who had simply got caught up in the evil
ways of their war-torn country. Of course, the
thought of reuniting with her family was the
strongest driver of her will to persevere. Despite all
AMANDA LINDHOUT
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